01
.Introduction

Why buy a safety gate?

When your child starts exploring the home, it’s time to batten down the hatches and make each room as child-safe as possible. You’ll need to block off access to the stairs and any other areas of the house that contain hazards, such as the kitchen, bathroom and garage. This is where safety gates and barriers come in handy, closing off dangerous areas and keeping your child out of harm’s way.

There’s no Australian Standard for safety gates so our testing is based on suitable clauses in the standards for cots, portable cots and toys – see how we test for more information.

How we test

Our tester assembles and installs each gate/barrier according to the supplied instructions. He then looks for a range of potential hazards:

gaps and moving parts that might trap fingers, limbs or heads

climbing footholds

detachable small parts that could be a choking hazard

the strength of the gate and its attachment to the doorway

sharp corners, edges and points

projections or openings that could entangle clothing and lead to strangulation.

In the absence of an Australian Standard, there are two international standards for safety gates: the European EN1930 and the American ASTM F1004. Certification to either of these standards is certainly worth looking for.

Note: The gaps between the sides of the safety gate and the door frame (or walls of a passageway) are installation-dependent; that is, they can vary depending on the width of the door opening. Therefore, we don’t test these gaps for entrapment hazards. When installing a gate or barrier, make sure the gap between the gate and the door frame is as small as possible.